Guitar Neck - shaping fretboard

[John Kananis]

I have a cousin who's a very accomplished guitarist. He's played (and continues to) with some pretty large names and venues. He was at the house the other night and asked if I could build him an (electric) guitar. He knows I've not done it before and that i normally build furniture (has a couple of my pieces) but wants something I've done to play. He has a ridiculous collection already and can buy whatever he wants so I wouldn't mind doing this right.

I'm going to do additional due diligence but after thinking on it a little bit, I believe my only real challenge will be shaping the neck (specifically the fretboard) - I don't feel challenged by the back of the neck (I don't think). What makes this especially difficult for me is that I don't play an instrument.

Anything else that may be more challenging than it appears?

He's giving me latitude on materials - his only ask is the shape of the body. And I have time, no hurry.

I'm not taking shortcuts, I'll be doing a ton of research but I consider you folks pretty high up on the value scale so starting the journey here... thanks in advance for your input.

[Warren Lake]

massive info on you tubes showing steps from many top builders.

[John Kananis]

Hi Warren, would you mind naming some of those content creators? I have trouble trusting a lot of those guys.


massive info on you tubes showing steps from many top builders.

[vince mastrosimone]

Guitar building is a complicated task and requires tools and knowledge you don’t have. I have not built a guitar ever but I have watched countless videos of builders. I would venture to say that they’re second guitar is a lot better than their first.

If this is the one and only guitar you plan on building, consider building only the body and leaving all the rest to an experienced builder.

[Warren Lake]

just loading tools to get to the job site no time now. There are tons ill take a look back tonight but take your pick, type in factory tour PRS guitars or Alembic, or acoustic Greenfield maybe Or Martin or I likely book mark some then never get back to them. Same trade but different tools and approaches. Linda Manzer for acoustics customers Pat Methany Paul Simon. Her shop was a block from where I used to live. taylor I think forgot for James Taylor, Taylor guitars david wilcox not sure just what to type and on the way out. Its endless I might be remembering wrong go into the musical instrument section below and look for the David Wilcox thing I posted there the guy that built him that guitar also built for James Taylor

[John Kananis]

Hi Vince, thanks for the input. I'll be doing the whole piece. I don't have the knowledge and that's why I'm doing the research. I enjoy new tools so that's not a big deal either. Finally, if I don't try, I can't fail or succeed so not into the not trying thing but thanks again.

[John Kananis]

Fantastic, thank you Warren!


just loading tools to get to the job site no time now. There are tons ill take a look back tonight but take your pick, type in factory tour PRS guitars or Alembic, or acoustic Greenfield maybe Or Martin or I likely book mark some then never get back to them. Same trade but different tools and approaches. Linda Manzer for acoustics customers Pat Methany Paul Simon. Her shop was a block from where I used to live. taylor I think forgot for James Taylor, Taylor guitars david wilcox not sure just what to type and on the way out. Its endless I might be remembering wrong go into the musical instrument section below and look for the David Wilcox thing I posted there the guy that built him that guitar also built for James Taylor

[lou Brava]

I've had a few custom built instruments made for me & 1 was an electric. I'm not pro player but know what a good instrument is which like most things can be very subjective.
Maybe obvious but find His favorite neck shape & fairly easy to copy that, than wood choice for body neck & fret board should be His call. Than fret materiel nickel, stainless & size again His choice. After neck shape radius of fret board again His choice. Getting the fret board and action to His liking may take a Pro set up nothing really hard about set up but a pro can do it really well pretty quick. Then along with wood type you've got electronics again His choice. A great thing about working for a Pro is he will know what He wants leaving you with a lot less to worry about. Finish can be hard depending on what he wants but a lot of online help there.
Than after all that hopefully you've built a "good one" & not sure what exactly what gives an electric the "mojo" but for me it's feel & tone. I got lucky on mine the Luthier when he was done was super pleased & everyone who's played mine really likes it. Good Luck & you'll have some fun with it I'm sure.

[Prashun Patel]

John, I've built a few electric and acoustic styles in the past 3-4 years. PM me here and I will send you my email; way easier.

#1: Sign up for TDPRI.com TDPRI is to guitar building and playing as SMC is to woodworking. Maybe even more so. They are super friendly, and helpful. You want to go to the Tele Home Depot forum and have a look around.

#2: For a reasonable woodworker with basic stationary tools, a solid body electric is straight forward. You may need to purchase some files and router bits though. Most people are advised to start with a "Telecaster" style, by Fender. There are many free plans for these online (Electric Herald is a great site). What is genius about the Tele is that Fender designed it to be easily mass produced. This means, he took out all the "hard" parts of the production that were characteristic of acoustic construction: The body is solid, there is no break angle between the neck and the body, there is no break angle between the neck and the tuning head.


The most intimidating part of the guitar seems to be the neck for many, but in fact it is straight forward. The problem with a neck is that the fretboard requires radiusing and needs to be cut with a saw that has the proper thickness. So you may find yourself buying an aluminum radius beam and a proper fret slotting saw. These are investments for a single guitar. You can purchase pre-radiused, pre-slotted fretboards from LMII.com or stewmac.com for far less total investment. So you could buy the fretboard and still make the rest of the neck.

If I were you, I'd make your buddy a telecaster with a pre-bought fretboard from LMII in either ebony or rosewood. Maple is a great, stable choice for a neck (use quartersawn if you can).

[Wes Grass]

LMII has a 'Showcase' email list that's worth signing up for just for the beautiful pictures. Tyson Soth, a few months back, my current favorite.

Radiusing a fretboard... a handplane comes to mind ... advantage over a 'radius block', or pre-radiused fretboard being you can do a compound radius, smaller at the nut. Not as common, but maybe something a real pro would appreciate.

[Matt Wolboldt]

The first woodworking project I ever built was an electric guitar. I used the book Make Your Own Electric Guitar & Bass. I had no real woodworking experience (or clamps) and it didn't seem too daunting. I even wound my own humbucking pickups. Creating the fretboard wasn't too bad, I got a fret scale ruler from Stewmac to assist in getting the spacing correct. I don't play the guitar, so I just liked the challenge, but a lesson I learned was not to make the neck too wide.

[John Kananis]

Ok, I'm getting excited now. I'm fine with the handwork - I have a nice collection of shaves, files, rasps, etc and I learned to use hand tools way before ever touching a machine. I'm completely comfortable with any necessary shaping, cutting, etc.

The info provided thus far is kindly appreciated.

[roger wiegand]

On a first instrument you can save a lot of headaches by ordering a slotted, radiused fretboard from Luthier's Mercantile. They deliver a great product made to your specs for a very reasonable price. It's certainly possible to do it yourself, but I'd take advantage of their jigs and machinery to get these operations done with precision.

It makes the project somewhat more complicated, but for me nothing says custom more than a through-neck design. A bolt-on neck always looks like a factory or kit guitar to me. (And I know that many (most) of the greats play bolt-on neck instruments and they probably don't really sound any different.) A laminated neck made with book matched lumber is also incredibly stable.

Shaping the neck is easy and fun. Find out what basic shape your friend likes but then have him hold the neck when it is near done. He'll be able to tell you where it's still too thick and if there's any unevenness. A spokeshave is my go-to tool for the bulk of the shaping. This is not a machine operation, you want to be feeling it constantly as you work. What matters at the end is how it feels, not adherence to some standard.

If you want to look like a genius, take your finished instrument to someone who can do the final setup on a Plek machine. I'm sure a master luthier will do as well or better, but the Plek brings near perfect intonation and fret leveling to mere mortals.

Lindy Fralin is a good source for vintage style pickups. Don't go cheap on the electronics or hardware. There can be a world of difference between a $1 potentiometer and a $4 one. It's worth splurging.

[Richard Coers]

I've made several dulcimers and I just buy a fret board to bypass the fret slot and location problems. I see you can buy just the fret board for less than $15 on-line

[Richard Coers]

Ok, I'm getting excited now. I'm fine with the handwork - I have a nice collection of shaves, files, rasps, etc and I learned to use hand tools way before ever touching a machine. I'm completely comfortable with any necessary shaping, cutting, etc.

The info provided thus far is kindly appreciated.
How do you feel about sawing the kerfs for the frets?

[John Kananis]

On a first instrument you can save a lot of headaches by ordering a slotted, radiused fretboard from Luthier's Mercantile. They deliver a great product made to your specs for a very reasonable price. It's certainly possible to do it...

Roger, thank you for being so thorough and I'll be looking into a through neck. Also, he's providing the electronics - he's picky about that stuff.

[John Kananis]

I'm comfortable with a hand saw, bow saw, fret saw, etc but I've never done this particular operation. What will be greatest challenge in doing so?


How do you feel about sawing the kerfs for the frets?

[Jim Becker]

What Prashun said.... TDPRI "Tele Home Depot" forum discussion area is a goldmine of knowledge just like you find here at SMC for "regular" (and certain specialty) woodworking. Building an electric guitar, particularly one with a "flat" geometry like pretty much anything Fender has made, is relatively easy, whether you have basic tools or more specialized ones. I have a number of builds I've done to-date and am working on deciding "what's next". (I did not build the nylon string acoustic in this photo...the teal tele was my first)

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[Prashun Patel]

Jim! Something with a bent back headstock and carved top. The math is fun!

[Don Parker]

You should browse the Stewart McDonald website: StewMac.com. There are books, tools, plans, etc. I build acoustic guitars. Carving the neck is manageable, but you will benefit from some specialized guidance, like from a book or a paid (not free on YouTube) video series. For a paid video series, I love Lutherie Academy, run by a guy named Robbie O’Brien. Good luck!

[John Kananis]

Jim, the telecaster looks great. Thanks for the inspiration.

And thanks to whomever moved this thread... after being here all these years, I never realized there was an instrument channel.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I cut the fret slots in my first several dozen instruments using a plastic speed square for alignment and a Harbor Freight flush cut pull saw. They used to cost about $9 15 years ago. It works best for me to cut the slots while the fretboard blank is still a rectangle and then make the taper on the sides and the radius on the top afterward. Stew-Mac's fret calculator is great, and free, as noted above. I would get some extra fret wire and practice cutting slots and putting frets in a few times before using your nice wood for the actual fretboard.

[John Pendery]

I’m not a guitar maker, so no authority whatsoever, but enjoy watching stewmac videos from time to time and some of the stuff from Texas Toast Guitars

[James Jayko]

I'm comfortable with a hand saw, bow saw, fret saw, etc but I've never done this particular operation. What will be greatest challenge in doing so?

There is just no margin for error, and a ton of specialty equipment for it. They have to be perfectly square, perfectly spaced, and a very specific depth. I've never built a guitar but I've consumed about all the luthiery content on YouTube (and have been a guitar player for ~30 years); I'd look to tdwoodfrd's video on YT titled "Renecking The Morris," this appears to be the most reasonable way to perform this operation that I've seen...

[Edward Weber]

Before you go cutting, you need to do your research. You need to determine the scale, size, shape radius, species, size of frets, type and number of frets for the neck. You may want to aquire some tools like, fret wire cutters, fret files, fret saw (the proper gauge for the chosen frets), height gauge. What material for the nut, marker dots, edge binding an on and on.
This can be as easy or as complicated as you make it.
Start with a realistic plan and work towards it.
First guitars are usually best made with a complete or semi-complete neck. That way the instrument, how ever it comes out, is usually still playable.
good luck

[Prashun Patel]

First time builders usually don't build a neck because they are usually not woodworkers. Woodworkers who understand straight, dry, and stable, are comfortable with routers, and know how to measure and cut and flatten (I don't use these terms cavalierly), and shape can build a fantastic neck pretty easily.

The biggest factor to playability is nailing the bridge height and the fret plane.

[Jim Becker]

Jim! Something with a bent back headstock and carved top. The math is fun!
Eventually...not sure the next one will go that way. It may be an Acoustasonic type as TDPRI member I_make_my_own (Helmut who now lives nearby in Quakertown) is making a balancing pre-amp for me.

I will say that your current build is very inspiring! I hope you'll show the boys and girls here that thang...

---

John, I did the move. I'm kinda anal about that kind of thing. LOL

[John Kananis]

I'm definitely doing the entire piece myself, including the neck (I'm really liking the through neck design). But I'm a bit away from start. I have a bunch of actual work, working on some lathe skills in my off time and I'm going away in the fall so maybe a late November start. Gives me a ton of time to research also.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I use home made sanding blocks to shape the fretboard. I cut the slots first. There is a bit of a learning curve to the process. Work slowly and check progress often.

[Edward Weber]

First time builders usually don't build a neck because they are usually not woodworkers. Woodworkers who understand straight, dry, and stable, are comfortable with routers, and know how to measure and cut and flatten (I don't use these terms cavalierly), and shape can build a fantastic neck pretty easily.

The biggest factor to playability is nailing the bridge height and the fret plane.

I respectfully disagree.
A woodworker can certainly be comfortable with his tools and jump right in to the building and shaping of an instrument neck, but that's just the basics. An instrument neck needs to serve a couple of functions, it needs to work properly with the rest of the instrument and it needs to be comfortable for the musician to play, one is easy, the other is not. A neck is of no use if it's not comfortable to play, at the same time, it's the most complex part of a guitar. Depending on the type and style of guitar, this can take many forms. The number of parameters that need to be considered in building your own guitar neck can be quite a long list. If you've never built one before, it can be impossible to understand how any one, or combination of these things can change the neck entirely.
What type of neck? How many pieces? What species? Is there a truss rod? What type of connection method? What shape of frets? and so on
A luthier is a specialist within the greater field of woodworking, saying any woodworker who cancan understand straight, dry, and stable, can just build a fantastic neck, diminishes their specialized skill set in some way.

Also "playability" is determined by the musician, it's a personal set of preferences that encompasses the entire instrument, not just where the bridge is set.

While I certainly don't consider myself an expert, I have been working on guitars on and off for close to 45 years. I like to think I understand what makes a instrument worth playing.

IMNSHO, first guitar, buy a neck, second guitar is when to decide to build or not.

This may be of interest to the OP and possibly others
https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/guitar-bass-mods/guitar-neck

[roger wiegand]

For what it's worth, here are pictures of my first guitar (a bass) and the second. Both were made while trying (successfully it seems) to entice my son into an interest in woodworking. I'm told by good players I trust not to BS me that both instruments are pleasant and easy to play and sound good. I'm not a player, so I wouldn't know; I just worked on them until they felt really nice in my hands. I re-shaped the bass neck on the advice of a pro player, and it feels even better now than it did before-- getting it thin enough caused me more than a few worries about going through to the truss rod slot. The second build is almost certainly better than the first-- it was far easier, anyway.
My point is that a half competent woodworker can make a very creditable instrument by studying a lot and then being very painstaking during the build. It's not rocket surgery, but it does require both a plan and care in doing the work. Both fingerboards were purchased from LMI. The design of both is my own and all the rest of the wood parts were made in my shop.

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[John Kananis]

Just want to say that I appreciate all the encouragement. There are some beautiful pieces here - I'll aspire to come close. I'll be doing the entire piece and can shape the neck to the musician's hand/preferences so not too worried about that part. The fretboard seemed more challenging and that's why I posted this thread... seems like a ton of information out there though so I'll start by shifting through it all.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Best wishes! These are fun and rewarding projects. To quote Dan Erlewine, “Each fret is a piece of jewelry”

[John Kananis]

I'm really liking the inlay on some of these. I've never done any inlay in ebony though so maybe another challenge to take on with this piece...I guess once I've researched enough I can start making design choices... really wish this build wasn't so far off all of a sudden.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

CNC has had a big impact on inlay. A lot of "hand made" builders slip in CNC inlays. They usually are easy to spot, they are very, very perfect. Getting them perfect by hand is something to aspire to.